Subtitle from cover

Foreword / Saul Bellow -- Preface -- Introduction : Our virtue -- Part I : Students. The clean slate ; Books ; Music ; Relationships -- Part II : Nihilism, American style. The German connection ; Two revolutions and two states of nature ; The self ; Creativity ; Culture ; Values ; The Nietzcheanization of the Left or vice versa ; Our ignorance -- Part III : The university. From Socrates' Apology to Heideggar's Rektoratsrede ; The Sixties ; The student and the university -- Afterword / Andrew Ferguson

In this book, the author (a distinguished political philosopher) argues that the social/political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis marked by obvious declines in appreciation of humanities, a drop in the qualitative output of our university systems, and a disquieting disconnect between today's students and the spiritual and cultural traditions of their heritage

Includes index